Former White House national security adviser John Bolton urged the United States to be more aggressive in combating Russian influence over its old Soviet Union neighbors by removing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key Russian ally, from power.
Bolton, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush presidency, made the recommendation Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe ahead of President Joe Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“In the case of Belarus, this is a pressure point to back Putin away. I think you’ve got to get Lukashenko out of power. I’d buy him off, to put it bluntly, but keep Russia from coming in,” Bolton said.
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In the same interview, Bolton gave a dismissive analysis of Russian power, claiming that Putin has been playing with a “very weak hand.” He argued that former President Donald Trump, whom he served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, was an “anomaly” in U.S. foreign policy and that the country is now, more than ever, united against Russian interference.
Bolton’s appearance came in the midst of several foreign policy victories for the Kremlin, particularly with the Nord Stream Pipeline, a joint project of Russia and Germany, all but reaching completion, giving Russia a major economic boost.
And there has been an escalation in crippling cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, suspected to have been carried out by Russian hackers.
Belarus has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks following a dramatic incident of “air piracy,” in which Belarus forced an international flight containing a Belarusian dissident in Belarus’s airspace to land, resulting in the journalist’s detention. Russia and Belarus have been seriously flirting with the idea of a possible “Union State,” a move that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned would pose a major threat to Ukraine. Such a superstate would surround Ukraine on two sides, allowing it to exert serious pressure on the nation.
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Bolton argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed that the U.S. should leverage its diplomatic power to oust Lukashenko from power, claiming that theatrical displays of condemnation and sanctions aren’t enough. He went so far as to argue that in removing Lukashenko and preventing a union with Russia, “the potential freedom of all 9.5 million Belarusian citizens is at stake.”
The Biden-Putin summit in Geneva, Switzerland, is scheduled for June 16. The summit may offer new diplomatic opportunities to present a stronger position against Russia, but Bolton stressed that he is “not optimistic.”
